The chemical and petroleum process industries use many types of fluidized reactor systems in processing and/or purifying chemicals. Processing and/or purifying often involves mixing fluids and passing a mixture of the fluids over a reactor bed, such as an adsorption bed, or passing the fluids over trays in a distillation column. One particular type of a fluidized bed reactor system is a multi-bed reactor with co-current flow of a process fluid and a feed fluid. The multi-bed reactor includes a series of solid particulate beds of catalyst particles that catalyze a reaction involving a process fluid flowing over the beds. The efficiency and life of the bed are influenced by the distribution of fluid flowing over the bed. Redistribution and mixing of fluids flowing over the beds is important for maximizing the life of the bed and maximizing the utilization of the catalyst by preventing zones in the bed having below average fluid flow, referred to in the art as “dead zones.”
One particular type of process employing a multi-bed reactor system is the adsorption separation process. The adsorption separation process has been developed through simulated moving bed (SMB) technology, where the adsorption separation process can be operated on a continuous basis. SMB reactor systems connect a feed stream to a series of beds in sequence: the feed stream is first connected to bed no. 1, then to bed no. 2, and so forth for numerous beds, the number of beds often being between 12 and 24. A rotary valve is usually employed to switch between the various beds. These beds may be considered to be portions of a single large bed whose movement is simulated. The moving bed simulation may be simply described as dividing the bed into series of fixed beds and moving the points of introducing and withdrawing liquid streams past the series of fixed beds instead of moving the beds past the introduction and withdrawal points. There are many different process requirements in moving bed simulation processes, resulting in different flow schemes. Common to each of these flow schemes, however, is the need for even distribution of the feed fluid over the numerous beds. In addition, the efficiency of the process has many factors, including the redistribution of fluid from one bed to the next, and the mixing and redistribution of a process fluid with one of the feed streams between two beds.
Improvements in the fluid distribution apparatus of such fluidized bed reactor systems can improve efficiency and increase the life of the catalysts disposed in the fluidized bed reactor system. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a fluidized bed reactor system employing a fluid distribution apparatus that is capable of mixing and distributing a fluid uniformly over the cross-section of a bed. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the inventive subject matter will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the inventive subject matter and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the inventive subject matter.